Why Do Paper Cuts Hurt So Much?

It’s a question we’ve all wondered, usually in the midst of writhing in stationery-induced agony. “Whyyyyyyy??!! It’s only papeerrrr owwwwww!!!” Want the answer? Scientific American’s Ferris Jabr’s got it.

It comes down to anatomy, our pesky, sensitive hands, and the fact that paper is pretty evil on a microscopic level.

Source: youtube.com

Illusions Reign Supreme on Halloween Your mind plays tricks on you every day, but even more so around Halloween. Tricks are built right into the holiday, from costumes to mazes to believing that small pieces of candy are somehow better for our teeth than large ones. Check out SciAm’s slideshow of Halloween-themed illusions at the link above. At top, Charles Allan Gilbert’s All Is Vanity, a visual pun and frightful illusion of materialism. (via Scientific American)
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Illusions Reign Supreme on Halloween

Your mind plays tricks on you every day, but even more so around Halloween. Tricks are built right into the holiday, from costumes to mazes to believing that small pieces of candy are somehow better for our teeth than large ones.

Check out SciAm’s slideshow of Halloween-themed illusions at the link above. At top, Charles Allan Gilbert’s All Is Vanity, a visual pun and frightful illusion of materialism.

(via Scientific American)

Source: scientificamerican.com

Why we need a Nobel Prize in Biology

Jalees Rehman takes a look at this year’s Nobel Prize given for reprogramming adult cells into embryonic states. Shinya Yamanaka is someone that we all knew would get one.

But why did it take John Gurdon so long? His work on transplanting adult nuclei into eggs, and all of the developmental biology that came after it, was done half a century ago.

The Nobel community seems to insist on direct medical benefits for the work of prize recipients. Perhaps that doesn’t fit with the current times:

When the Nobel prizes were established more than a century ago, biology as an independent science was still in its infancy. The past century has brought us remarkable discoveries in biology, such as those in the areas of evolution or photosynthesis, which do not have a direct medical application. Just like the Nobel Prize in Physics honors great intellectual feats in the field of physics without documenting that these discoveries will lead to new technologies, biological discoveries should be similarly recognized without having to await imminent medical relevance.

Trayvon Martin’s Psychological Killer: Why We See Guns That Aren’t There

Melanie Tannenbaum writes over at SciAm about the psychology behind split-second decisions like the one George Zimmerman made when he shot Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman did not make a split-second decision, that was the wrong wording, and a bad lede into the study, which is about split-second reactions.

A 2002 study put college students in a similar situation and measured their ability to make snap judgements of whether to shoot:

Groups of college students were told that a series of people would come on the screen in front of them and would either be holding a gun or a neutral object, like a wallet, aluminum can, or cell phone. If the participants correctly shot an armed target, they would receive 10 points; if they correctly did not shoot an unarmed target, they would receive 5 points. Shooting an unarmed target deducted 20 points, and not shooting an armed target – the most potentially dangerous outcome for a real police officer on the streets – would result in the harshest penalty of all, a 40-point deduction.

As each target appeared on screen, participants had to decide as quickly as possible if the target was holding a gun or a harmless object, and subsequently whether to shoot or not shoot by pushing a “shoot” or “don’t shoot” button. Unbeknownst to participants, the researchers had manipulated one critical feature of the targets – some of the targets were White and some were Black.

You can probably guess what the results were, but the psychology might surprise you. It turns out that a person does not have to carry overt racist feelings to make a mistake in this situation. The results showed that merely being aware of racial prejudice spawned shooter bias, no matter if the shooter’s perspective on the prejudice was positive or negative.

By all indications, George Zimmerman is an overtly racist man, and that lies at the heart of this tragedy. But this study raises an important point: One does not have to be overtly racist to make the same mistake. Check out Melanie’s full post and see what you think.

Edit: Like I anticipated, some people aren’t getting the point of this article. George Zimmerman is a racist who murdered an unarmed black boy. This is a psychological study that says that the same thing can happen, in a simulation, without overt racism. This is not a defense of Zimmerman, because he is indefensible.

It hurts so good: the runner’s high

Scicurious lays out the competing theories behind the “runner’s high” at SciAm:

The runner’s high is a state of bliss achieved by athletes (not just runners) during and immediately following prolonged and intense exercise. It can be an extremely powerful, emotional experience. Many athletes will say they get it (and indeed, some would say we MUST get it, because otherwise why would we keep running 26.2 miles at a stretch?), but what IS it exactly? For some people it’s highly emotional, for some it’s peaceful, and for some it’s a burst of energy. And there are plenty of other people who don’t appear to get it at all. What causes it? Why do some people get it and others don’t?


Endogenous opioids or cannabinoids? And why on earth do we have this response to something that can also be so painful? All I know is that I’ve been addicted for a long time. 

Read on …

The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance

Susan Cain talks to Scientific American about her book Quiet : The Power of Introverts. There is great value in those who prefer introversion, and it is quite different from shyness. Yet our society does not reward this work ethic and social style, even though as many as two-thirds of people are introverts. A wonderful interview.

Many introverts feel there’s something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you’re not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time. Introverts are constantly going to parties and such when they’d really prefer to be home reading, studying, inventing, meditating, designing, thinking, cooking…or any number of other quiet and worthwhile activities.

According to the latest research, one third to one half of us are introverts – that’s one out of every two or three people you know. But you’d never guess that, right? That’s because introverts learn from an early age to act like pretend-extroverts.

Get Over It: Men and Women Are from the Same Planet

Agustín Fuentes shreds a recent paper from PLoS ONE that claims a litany of “sex differences” in trying to define “masculinity-femininity” at the SciAm guest blog:

“Sex” and “Gender” are not the same thing.  Sex is a biological state that is measure via chromosomal content and a variety of physiological and developmental measures.  Gender is the roles, expectations and perceptions that a given society has for the sexes.  Most societies have two genders on a masculinity-femininity continuum, some have more.  The two are interconnected, but not the same thing.  We are born with a sex, but acquire gender and there is great inter-individual diversity within societies and sexes in regards to how sex and gender play out in behavior and personality.

Check out the post for more. Plenty of mention on where the body of literature stands on the development of gender vs. sex.